Vladimír Remek

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Vladimír Remek
Intercosmos Cosmonaut
Nationality	Czech
Born	September 26, 1948 České Budějovice
Other occupation	Pilot
Rank	Colonel, Czech Air Force
Space time	7d 22h 17m
Selection	Air Force Group 6
Missions	Soyuz 28
Mission insignia

Vladimír Remek (born 26 September 1948) is the first Czechoslovak in space (son of Czech mother and Slovak father), and the first cosmonaut from a country other than the Soviet Union or the United States. As of 2004, with the entry of the Czech Republic into the European Union Vladimír Remek is considered to be the first European Astronaut.^[1] He flew aboard Soyuz 28 from March 2nd to March 10th 1978, for seven days, 22 hours, and 17 minutes. In later life he became a politician and now sits in the European Parliament.

Remek was born in České Budějovice. He graduated from the Air Force Academy and worked as an Air Force pilot. He joined the Intercosmos program as an Army pilot in 1976.

Vladimír Remek was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union on March 16, 1978 ^[2]Later, he became director of the Museum for Aviation and Astronautics in Prague, then representative for the company ČZ in Moscow. He later worked at the Czech embassy in Russia.

He is now a Member of the European Parliament for the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia, which is part of the European United Left–Nordic Green Left party group in the European Parliament. He is married and has one child.

The asteroid 2552 Remek is named after him.

[edit] References

1. ^ Commemorating 30 years of European human space flight. EU CORDIS. Retrieved on 2008-05-15.
2. ^ (Russian)Biography at the website on Heroes of the Soviet Union and Russia

[edit] External links

• biography of Vladimír Remek at the European Parliament
• Short biography (in Czech)
• Spacefacts biography of Vladimír Remek